Rohit Bajaj

Vice-President, Business Development, Indian Energy Exchange

Rohit Bajaj, vice-president, business development, Indian Energy Exchange (IEX), brings to the table over 24 years of experience in power plant operations, strategic planning, commercial activities, and management of regulatory affairs. Since 2014, he has been associated with the IEX, where he has been responsible for exploring new market segments and opportunities in power trading, renewable energy certificates and energy saving certificates as well as managing the exchange’s membership vertical. Prior to joining the IEX, he was a whole-time director with National Energy Trading and Services, leading its power trading business. Earlier, he has worked with Lanco Amarkantak, the Avantha Group, Reliance Industries and Jindal Stainless.

Bajaj feels that since the exchanges provide flexibility in buying and selling, and offer transparent, reliable and competitive prices, they have become the most preferred option for short-term power procurement, and more and more participants, amongst both state discoms and open access consumers, are relying on them.

Commenting on the key trends emerging in the power trading segment, Bajaj says, “With improvements on the supply side, many states have realised that long-term power purchase agreement (PPAs) are not required beyond the baseload. Also, with the availability of adequate interregional transmission capacity, there is no requirement for longer-duration contracts to secure transmission capacity. Therefore, discoms are incrementally opting for the short-term market, which is evident from the fact that hardly any PPAs have been signed during the past five years. Further, with the exponential growth in renewables and their concentration in a few states, short-term trading through exchanges will see a huge fillip.”

Looking back, Bajaj feels working on assignments relating to the operationalisation of disputed PPAs, tariff-related disputes, etc. have been a great learning experience since these involve a detailed understanding of regulations and the commercial impact on businesses.

For a healthy work-life balance, Bajaj spends over an hour on fitness early morning. He likes to spend quality time with his family during weekends and plans outdoor activities such as swimming, biking, and playing football and table tennis. He enjoys watching movies, with The Godfather being his favourite. He is also fond of reading and has recently finished reading Sapiens -A Brief History of Humankind.